A British Columbia man who pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child pornography has been spared jail time after a judge determined his collection was "relatively modest."Mark Keenan, 54, will instead serve his two year less a day sentence in the community. In his decision, Kelowna Provincial Court Judge A. Tam explained that Keenan will spend 18 months on hour arrest, with a 6 p.m. curfew for the remaining six months. That will be followed by 12 months probation."What sets this case apart somewhat from the other cases cited is the relatively modest size of Mr. Keenan's collection of six images," Tam declared. "Although there is no strict mathematical relationship between the size of the collection and the length (or indeed type) of sentence, the size of a collection has often been held to be an aggravating factor.".Keenan was found to have uploaded six images of child pornography to Tumblr in 2018. They depicted boys between the ages of nine and 16 "essentially naked.""The images focussed on their genitals," Tam wrote. "In one image, one boy was forced to kiss the mouth of another boy. In another image, an adult was seen touching the genitals of the victim, and the victim was forced to touch the genitals of the adult."Keenan claimed to have "no sexual interest in children," and said he posted the image in his own "undercover sting" to catch pedophiles on the platform. Messages were discovered in which he talked with other adults about "sexual activities, both penetrative and non-penetrative, between adults and children." A psychiatric report came back showing he should be "viewed as posing a low risk for sexual recidivism.""Taking a global view of Mr. Keenan's conduct," Tam concluded, "the Court is satisfied that permitting him to serve his sentence within the community, with strict conditions that significantly restrict his liberty, would not be inconsistent with all of the applicable principles of sentencing, including those of deterrence and denunciation, with some attention paid to proportionality."
